National Defence committee  We need the air capacity. We need icebreakers. We need to have exercises on Canadian shores. A lot of this messaging is perception, making sure that Canada is not viewed as a soft target. Norway, for example, has held a naval exercise, Cold Response. We should very seriously con

National Defence committee  It was the last sentence, basically. There is little choice but to have an unwavering commitment, a major investment in hard power and consequent economic sacrifices, to make certain that Canada is never viewed as a soft and tempting target.

National Defence committee  If I may just say so, I have no desire to get into partisan politics, nor do I think it's helpful to get into recriminations. I think we need to be forward-looking. The reality is that I think there are very significant threats that have been building up. These are growing threa

National Defence committee  What we have learned in our relationship with China is that we have to be extremely careful, whether it's with Huawei or with other elements of the economic relationship. We need to understand that China is not driven only by economic concerns; it is also driven very much by poli

National Defence committee  We have little indication to believe that. All we have to look at is China's international behaviour and the way they are proceeding towards Taiwan. As I noted, this idea that has been pushed by what I called “crude realism”—that it doesn't really matter what happens domestical

National Defence committee  Thank you. I'm trying to just understand exactly the question. Are you asking me if I share the confidence that Mr. Roussel has that Russia is not an immediate threat or a medium threat? Is that the question?

National Defence committee  I wish I could share the sanguine approach that was outlined by Professor Roussel and that we could just proceed as we have been doing. I think that's a mistake. I think we really need to upgrade our military. I think the Russian threat is significant. We already see prodding an

National Defence committee  Well, there are a great many things broken, but one thing that really worries me is that we are spending a lot of time trying to reassure ourselves that there's no real external threat. We look at this kind of binary approach, thinking that if we spend on the military, we can't s

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for that question. Russia has a very powerful military presence and a growing one in the Arctic, but they are working with a rather small economy. Russia is but a remnant of a former superpower. Its economy is not really much bigger than that of Italy's econo

National Defence committee  Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for that question. Again, I want to emphasize that we have to look at the Russian threat not in terms of a kind of standard military invasion, because that can be easily dismissed. That's not how threats manifest themselves, and this is not nec

National Defence committee  I'm not going to get into any partisan politics, but what I would point out is that we have to be very careful how we define a threat from Russia. If we ask whether there is a threat that Russia would massively invade the Canadian north, that is not what is likely to happen. We

National Defence committee  Unfortunately, Canada has neglected its hard power for quite some time now. Given the geopolitics today, we can ill afford to do that. Whether we're looking at general issues or at the specifics you have mentioned, all of those need to be addressed, and they need to be address

National Defence committee  I do not know the specifics of it.

National Defence committee  I understand.

National Defence committee  Thank you. Can you hear me now?